Michael SandtFile Sharing. Most college students are familiar with the term. Programs such as Napster, Limewire, Kazaa, and Morpheus have become synonymous with the world of illegal music downloads. In recent memory, colleges have picked up on this trend and moved to stop students from using such applications. Now, some colleges have decided to change their attitude about file sharing.
Six unnamed colleges have started participation in a secret program designed to test a new software known as Choruss. According to some sources, colleges involved in the program would pay a blanket license fee for students at their university to download as many songs from the service as they want. The concept being that students could log on to a website and instantly have access to a large pool of songs for a low flat fee. Some student governments have even proposed covering the fee for the students. Under the current policy, students could download as many songs as they wanted and keep them permanently, even after they have unsubscribed from the service. Critics argue that students could easily download the entire library and cancel the service while only paying one month's fee. Proponents are quick to say that such a convenient service could be enough to get students to 'do the right thing'. Pay for music downloads and support the artists and record companies.
The colleges involved in this study have been shrouded in secrecy and several other colleges suspected to be participating have denied any affiliation. With that type of concealment it is hard to judge whether or not such a program could have success on modern college campuses. As for me, I think it's a very clever idea. Appealing to a student's sense to be honest as well as providing them with a convenient as well as cheap service for accessing music could prove to be fruitful. While they will never fully stop such downloading, with this program they could surely curb it.
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